


Sabaku no Go

by bmouse



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-04
Updated: 2012-04-04
Packaged: 2017-11-03 01:31:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/375579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bmouse/pseuds/bmouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The challenge was too troublesome to refuse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sabaku no Go

So he'd decided to break up the team cloud watching with a little solitary moon gazing. And then when he'd felt more than heard the rustle of moving sand across the tiled roof behind him Shikamaru had sighed, casually picked his ear to establish that he wasn't gonna do that whole fearful cowering thing and resigned himself to the evening not ending well. And really, he thought, looking down at the black and white covered board in front of him, the situation could only be called grim. 

At least Gaara hadn't wanted to talk about his sister. 

Damn the mouthy leggy woman for the way she kept grinning at him in between being snide and damn himself for not having the energy to properly avoid her. Which of course did nothing but give gossips the wrong idea. And probably prompted this weird attempt at ‘bonding’ or whatever. So it was clearly her fault that he is playing boardgames way past midnight with a confirmed killer who was probably just a few steps left of frothing, no matter how much he made nice with Uzumaki. 

Playing and possibly losing.

Yeah the game was being...difficult. Rigid Speaking patterns reflected rigid thinking patterns, which were exploitable. This game was re-teaching him that. 

To waste no time on useless modestly, the odds were in his favor. Still, considering who he was dealing with Shikamaru had braced himself for a multi-pronged attack with vicious territory fights and a deeply annoying endgame. Every point with it's own struggle etc. etc. Naturally, he was right.

Gaara had potential, he had to give him that. Chilling relentlessness aside he did unpredictable things that, coupled with seeing those wide eyes moon-bright, those pale fingers twitching slightly before he picked out a stone, not a tell either just...twitching, might have unnerved a less seasoned opponent into misreading crazy-lucky moves as a part of something bigger. Tough luck that Shikamaru was not that opponent. And though Shogi was more his speed if his sensei ever got wind of things dragging on this long there would be no shutting him up. The moon was setting already. 

Slowly, without any sudden movements, he had put his hands in front of him thumbs touching in the circle and that should have been that. 

Boxing his opponent in with more disciplined formations was pretty satisfying but then when he started to pull away decisively the sand-nin's playing style had changed. Completely. Now it was slow. like an eternity was neatly packed away into the several seconds he took to think and the moves ripped across the board like an oncoming drought - rolling, inescapable and possibly even more merciless. Even the finger twitching had stopped.

The moon was touching the clouds. They were in yose now. Yose sucked. 

Shikamaru looked at the board again and scratched at the side of his neck.

"Man, seriously?" he muttered. 

 

Across the board Gaara mindfully resisted the urge to match the Nara sigh for sigh. He would have liked to say that he didn't know how he got talked into these things but his traitorous short term memory still held a reasonably accurate transcript of the conversation. At least he'd haggled well. Extra sleep for two weeks, with no nightmare flashbacks, no alcohol, and absolutely no singing.

Inside, in the vast emptiness that housed it Shukaku was flattening dunes as it rolled around in vicious glee. Dust devils spawned from its triumphant howling.

"Gyahaha! Choke on that, shadow brat! Unbeatable genius my ass, I was Inter-Bijuu league champion for three centuries running!"

Gaara gave up and sighed.

There had better _never_ be a repeat incident. He didn't care how good Sarutobi Asuma was supposed to be at Go.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah... I blame my recent re-read of Hikaru no Go


End file.
